Friday Kickaround

*Read Bloomberg's fascinating story about the potential economic darkside of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka signings. "These transfers are a serious challenge to the idea of fair play and the concept of financial balance in our competitions," UEFA President Michel Platini said.

*Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones, whose father was in the American military, wants to play for the USA.

*After returning from a layoff to play in two games, New England star Taylor Twellman will not travel with the team to Kansas City because of persistent dizziness and nausea.

*Between games of the United-Freedom doubleheader at RFK tomorrow, the Virginia-D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame will honor six inductees: Jeff Agoos, Mia Hamm, Wendy Gebauer, Marcia McDermott, Alkis Panagoulias and Dave Williams. (Agoos and Hamm are not able to attend.)

*It's multimedia day for the Insider: Besides the blog and writing for Saturday's print edition (which is available online tonight), please join me for a live online chat on washingtonpost.com at 1:30 p.m. today. Submit questions in advance, follow the action live and read the transcript at this link. Later, between 5 and 6 p.m., you can catch me on Comcast SportsNet's "Washington Post Live," which replays at 11:30.

*Congrats to the British Tigers, an amateur team affiliated with the British Embassy that won a second consecutive Washington International Soccer League division title with a 7-1-1 record and plus-25 goal difference. The players are Brits and Americans, plus South African and Bulgarian.

I thought the ship had sailed on securing Jones years ago. I'm happy the new FIFA rule allowed for a switch to happen. He's a class player. Jermaine brings that destroyer, enforcer mentality to the table. If he's slotted in, right next to Bradley, we have a very strong central midfield pairing. He could be the perfect link between the backline and attack. Now let's get Jones in on the action! I wish he had dome this a week earlier. he could be in south Africa adjusting to the squad. Oh well!

I honestly have no idea who this guy is, but I promise to do my research. I wonder about the attitude, though. Born to an American soldier, lived in Germany all of his life, decided to play for Germany (3 times(, didn't make the Euro 2008 team, and now, effectively, he says, "I'm taking my ball and going home."

I feel bad for Twellman. Aside from the fact that he's a Rev, the guy is a good player (obviously, with 100+ goals)and from all accounts a good guy. I hope that this injury doesn't ruin the rest of his life. So weird.

The highlight of his first term was winning the 2002 Champions League. At that time, he bankrolled player trades by selling the club’s training ground for 500 million euros. Last month, he said Real Madrid would need to borrow to finance purchases this time. Madrid had debt of 563 million euros in June 2008, according to its latest published accounts, and sales of 365.8 million euros for fiscal 2008.

If Plantini were really worried about the size of transfer fees, he would actually do something about it instead of talking about it and the letting the debt pile up.

It will be very interesting to see whether the Glazers (who have made serious budget cuts with the Bucs) will let Mr. Ferguson have every bit of that 80 mill for transfers or use it to service their debt.

OK, Jermaine, you want to play for the USA? You're starting in the Azteca against Mexico. Your job is to do all of the midfield dirty work so that the other midfielders can attack the Mexican defense. And we're not going to sub you out, no matter how tired you get. :-)

(Seriously - as long as the guy has a good attitude, and a willingness to work hard and be a team player, bring him in!)

And, of course, since virtually no American fans have seen Jones play, he instantly becomes their favorite, and Bob Bradley should be fired for not playing him immediately. He becomes the guy that is absolutely key to our success. He's the guy we HAVE to cap right now. Bradley, what are you thinking? This guy's obviously better than what you have!

The fact that a Bundesliga regular (and apparently a pretty good one at that)is now available to the USMNT is obviously a good thing. Bradley and the coaching staff's ability to integrate him - should he be invited into camp for the Mexico and other WCQs is the challenge. I am hoping that the Confed cup gives us a better perspective on the actual status of this team. My feeling is that this guy will be part of the mix from here on out.

Not a bad finish, but let's hold off on crowning him the next "great" American midfielder. I hear there is an even YOUNGER dual nationality player (19!) who has already played for Benfica and AS Monaco...Portugal AND Ligue 1!

even though the A team won't be at the Gold Cup, you have to imagine Jones will be brought in for the tournament to integrate him into the team. Now all we need is a naturalized Brazilian and we'll be on our way.

I'm not going to lie, I have no clue who this guy is. I just don't follow the Bundesliga much, so I'm not gonna say this guy is the answer to all of the USMNT's problems. I'm not going to speculate that he's better than the middies we have now. But he's definately worth a look. With qualifying, Confederations Cup and Gold Cup all happening around the same time span any possible depth can't be a bad thing. Add onto the busy schedule the fact that the MLS based players probably can't be called away from their clubs for all 3, I think having this guy in the mix can't hurt. At the very least, call him into camp before the Gold Cup and give him a look-see.

TwinCity -- Thanks for the clip. It was a good finish (most goals are), but the really impressive ball work was done by the other two Schalke players. Anyone know their names, parentage and eligibility?

Seriously, though -- I'd be surprised if Jones is the only player that might be eligible and willing to join the USA fold.

I've seen Jones play a few times. He can definitely play; the high ratings Josh8 cites are deserved. He's not going to turn us into world-beaters, but given a fully fit player pool he would be the best option to partner Bradley in central midfield. He has a large range on the field and, unlike most of our central midfield options, has a reliable first touch. Jones isn't someone that changes how we play, but he will improve how we use the current system. If memory serves, he also has a powerful long-range shot (might be getting that confused with someone else at Schalke, though).

Platini must have been sarcastic. "Financial balance" in European competitions? Is he having a flashback to his playing days? This actually could work out better than it doe in baseball. There, the Yankees and Red Sox rape the other teams and leave them with the occasional prospect. Here, teams may actually reap some financial benefit from the largesse of the top teams and avoid financial collapse. The only balance being skewed is at the very top. That madness won't spread -- look at the baseball free agent market last year. It was Texeira and everybody else. Sanity prevailed, except in the one case. That's waht will happen in soccer.

so that would make him the germane German Jermaine? and if he got swine flu (schweine flu?), we could talk about the "germane German Jermaine's germs." Or perhaps "Jermaine's germane German germs, man."

Well, Edu is out for a while. We'll see how he rebounds. We haven't seen anything very exciting out of Kljestan this year. But, with Bradley, Clark, Jones and Feilhaber, we might have some depth in the central midfield.

I'm guessing it's too soon to bring him on for Confederations Cup -- I hope Jones didn't have that in mind. It would be nice to get him into camp for the Gold Cup and, if it works out, for the next set of WC qualifiers.

Ives has a piece on espn's site -- http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=649031&cc=5901 -- about other options. I'm guessing the piece was written before the FIFA rule change, since Ives is still referring to the "21 years old" youth team cap-tie rule. He focuses on Wallace (a maybe that is probably inching closer to the USA), Kandji (seems a definite, though that may depend on playing form), and Frei (wants to play for the Swiss, but if they somehow don't call on him, he may go the same route as Jones). He also mentions a central defender with Middlesborough - Sebastian Hines, and a trio of midfielders: yet another 5'7" Mexican-American - Marco Vidal (plays for Ciudad Juarez - Primera division club), Vincenzo Bernardo - with Napoli - and Mikkel Deskerud, a midfielder who plays in Norway.

Jermaine Jones is the fourth-highest rated midfielder in the Bundesliga. He certianly gets a serious look from us.

And the new FIFA rule could also open up a chance to get Edgar Castillo, who plays for Club America and is at the fringes of the Mexican national team (almost got capped earlier this year except for a passport problem.) And is (wait for it)--a LEFT BACK! Probably not the caliber of Jones, but given our woes at that position, worth trying to get him.

Born to an American soldier, lived in Germany all of his life, decided to play for Germany (3 times(, didn't make the Euro 2008 team, and now, effectively, he says, "I'm taking my ball and going home."

@Demon -- to be fair here, "we" didn't produce Jones. He's a German, who happens to have US citizenship -- from which the USMNT will benefit. He may be the best player to come to the program yet, under such circumstances.

Given our offensive shortcomings, and the weakness of the back line, a pair of good defensive mids is a good thing. This should free up Donovan to play more centrally and offensively, in an effective way, until we develop our own Iniesta or Gerrard (maybe if Charles Renken can fully recover from his knee injuries).